Follow Northeastern’s information security and privacy guidelines when thinking about what information should or should not be stored on the cloud. A good rule – if you are working with Personally Identifiable Information (PII), continue to use the university’s on-premise shared network storage (Q: drive).

Online File Storage

All students, faculty, and staff can access the online version of OneDrive for Business by signing in to the Office 365 portal and selecting the OneDrive tile to be connected to your folder. Faculty and staff can also access OneDrive for Business through Outlook on the web where you must click on the grid at the upper right and select the OneDrive tile.

OneDrive is accessible on Northeastern-managed computers, unmanaged or personal computers, or iOS or Android devices.

If you have installed any of the Office mobile apps, you can save and access files on OneDrive for Business by signing in to the app with your Office 365 username.

You can access your OneDrive for Business storage directly through the standalone OneDrive for Business app, and open files in the Office mobile apps. NOTE: Do not install the standard OneDrive app; you will not be able to sign in to your Northeastern-associated account.

iPad

If you have installed any of the Office mobile apps, you may save files locally on your tablet, or to OneDrive for Business by signing in to the app with your Office 365 username.

You can access your OneDrive for Business storage directly through the standalone OneDrive for Business app by signing in with your Office 365 username, and open files in the Office mobile apps. NOTE: Do not install the standard OneDrive app; you will not be able to sign in to your Northeastern-associated account.

Android Phone

If you have installed the Office Mobile app, you can save and access files on OneDrive for Business by signing in to the app with your Office 365 username.

You can access your OneDrive for Business storage directly through the standard OneDrive app by signing in with your Office 365 username, and open files in the Office Mobile app.

If you have a personal Microsoft account, you can also access your personal OneDrive storage through the standard OneDrive app by signing in with your Microsoft account. NOTE: This is currently only available for Android devices.

Android Tablet

You can access your OneDrive for Business online storage by installing and signing in to the standard OneDrive app with your Office 365 username.

The Office mobile apps for Android tablets are now available for tablet only. You may save files locally on your tablet, or to OneDrive for Business by signing in to the app with your Office 365 username.

Online Office Applications

When you log in to the Office 365 portal (or faculty/staff can also use Outlook on the web) with your Office 365 username, you have access to all the services in Microsoft’s Office 365 portal. This includes OneDrive and, through that, access to online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

When you create new documents, spreadsheets presentations or notebooks in the OneDrive version of an application, those files will save automatically to OneDrive. You can then edit those files through the online applications, or you can download the files to edit within the Office applications installed on your computer.

File Sharing

By default, files stored or created in the OneDrive version of an application are private. But you can share specific files or folders with one or more individuals, by adding their email address and simply selecting the Share+ option. You can choose to grant access that is read-only, or you can grant permission to edit the file.

When someone with access edits a file, subsequent editors will not be able to see who made what changes in the file. However, a new version will be saved and the file owner can view old versions.

Collaboration

The engine behind OneDrive is SharePoint, Microsoft’s web-based collaborative workspace tool that allows faculty and staff to share documents and files. This version of SharePoint is hosted by Microsoft, and is separate from the version of SharePoint hosted by Northeastern.

For real-time collaboration, anyone who has edit permission on a file can open that file in the online application and you can all work in the file at the same time.

NOTE:

Every person editing will see live updates with colored markers indicating who is typing.

Once someone has finished writing something, you cannot see who wrote what.

The file owner can also temporarily lock a file for editing by other users with permission. If you select a file (click on the check mark to the left of the file name), go to “manage” and choose “check out,” it is then locked against editing by other users. You can then edit it in the online application, or download it for editing in an Office application on your computer.

NOTE:

If you have locked a file, anyone you have shared the file with will be able to view the file in the online application, but if they attempt to edit it or download it, they will be informed that you have it checked out.